So. How surprised are we? What would it have been like if McCain HAD become President, and Palin HAD become the Vice President? The conservative church goers heartbreak would have rivaled the sound of the shot heard around the world.
This is why I've learned that it is an exercize in raw futility to vote politically along moral lines. God takes care of morality--in the hearts and minds of individuals. The majority vote of a nation cannot determine what's moral and what's immoral. Majority rule has NEVER been the deciding factor on what's moral. I mean, duh? Hello? Nazi Germany?
So Sarah Palin forcing her knocked up teenage daughter to become engaged to her knocker-upper just to win votes was politic hypocracy at its finest. I'm SO glad she didn't become the VP. This country has had enough laughing stocks to represent us across the world, don't you think?
Surveying the scene, Mattie Bridgewater whispered from her seat, "I just can't believe it. Not in my lifetime."
Bridgewater said she went to the same elementary school as Emmett Till, the boy from Chicago whose murder in Mississippi was one of the catalysts of the civil rights movement. Both she and her 92-year-old mother voted for Obama.
"I'm sitting here in awe," she said. "This is a moment in history that I just thank my God I was allowed to live long enough to see. Now, when I tell my students they can be anything they want to be, that includes president of the United States."
Weep. Can't you just see the 92-yr old woman making her way to the voting machine? Behind her, in memory, plays the scenes of the March on Washington, the loosed dogs attacking black people in the streets, the burning churches and flaming crosses, the blocked school steps to hassle the little black girls as they entered the school in Little Rock--all events that played out in her lifetime. and she lived to cast her vote for the first black President of the United States.
A black President. THE black President.
And see as well, behind her, the spirits of all her friends who didn't make it this far, supporting her from the other side. She cast her vote for them too. Did she whisper "We made it, girls."
And fully, as Eliel asked in the comments, it's clear to me how the country itself prepared its citizens for this day through the media. Yes, through the idiot box.
The series "24" cast two black actors to be the President for how many seasons, Eliel? 3? The movie Deep Impact cast America's favorite black actor (Morgan Freeman) as the President. These images were accepted and helped people in the comfort of their homes and bedrooms that it should be possible. That nothing is wrong with the idea. That it's no aesthetic violation to have a brown-skinned President. Even Dave Chapelle made it okay to laugh at the idea that a black President could be a homeboy and funny as hell. Softened the concept for the country.
Also, Eliel has a fantastic post quoting his homeboy in media, that Coates guy. I urge a read. In essence, it's also about the white people of America who really did this. The white women marrying black men and raising black children. The white parents who supported these white daughters, such as Barack's grandmother, who passed away day before yesterday. And then there are the white casting directors. White scriptwriters, white directors, white white white white white.
This didn't happen alone. White people in power and influence were ready for this. White votes for Barack flooded the ballot boxes. White delegates and superdelegates. White news media picked the slant they wanted to give (Yes, I have to acknowledge this too. I hate that it's true, but the media is a total bitch most of the time). White Tina Fey and white Darrel Hammond sending up the Republicans in massive lampoon. White writers. White SNL producers. White viewers loving it.
I'm okay with this. I'm really, really okay with it.
My polling place was about the size and a half of my room. I don't understand that. I thought Inwood was a big neighborhood. Maybe it's because voter turnout is not the grand adventure I thought it was? Or maybe Inwood has more than one polling place. My little place had three districts in it. Maybe other places have three or more. Or less.
The voting booth has easily seen several hundred Presidential elections. Big red lever to crank once to the right, then flip about half dozen little black flippers about the size of half my finger, then ratchet the red lever back to the left. This tallies votes how exactly? What did the little black flippers do, punch a hole in a scorecard? I say scorecard because I do remember something about hanging chads a bit ago, and so I figured...
But whatever. The Good Shepherd polling place saw my attendance this morning. So did about two score voters. Hispanic, white, black, male, female. Some more talkative than others to help me find the correct table to approach and verify my registration. Volunteers manning the tables, door, and booths with no particular people skills, but the dedication to show up.
I've done this before. For every election since Reagan. Including Reagan. But for some reason, leaving out of my polling center today, my face split in a poop-eating grin.
Ever notice how the only time anyone likes Daylight Savings' Time is when it's over? When we get the hour back that they stole from us, doesn't everything go back to normal? Even though it's horribly dark at 5:00p now?
Dear President Obama;
Please end Daylight Savings Time.
Thank you,
Your friend Alan
P.S. Thank you for winning the election and shattering the glass ceiling for all black people. Now please don't screw this up. It would really suck if they looked back in history and said "See what happened when we let one of them become the President?"
I named this blog after a show that I found Childhood Bud and I both liked to listen to, except I think he might listen far more than I do. The show is "This American Life." While driving between job locations yesterday (for I had went to work after a leisurely morning and found myself working between noon and 8pm), this "This American Life" episode rocked my socks off. It's an hour long and I want to quote the whole thing here, but I'll do my very best to summarize what stood out to me.
The show was about the campaigning for both McCain and Obama in Pennsylvania. The radio reporters doing the recording were hanging out with people that canvassed in a PA town known for Democrats and at the U of P state college. In the town, the campaigners were Democrats who, after Hilary had not gotten the nod, were voting for McCain and wanted to convert undecided Democrats to the same positon. The campaigners at the state college were Democrats registering students and urging them to vote for Obama. A third segment was about the Union AFL-CIO's support of Obama, and Richard Trumka's address to Union members about racial issues.
Until that point, I thought the show was just going to major on the virtues of the Obama ticket, as all good lefty radio is bound to do, but then the AFL-CIO brought up race, and the whole message turned for me. It made me realize that although I haven't allowed myself to stay naive about racial issues, I had decided not to put the magnifying glass on the issue. I had decided to focus on the white support of Obama and take comfort from it.
Well this episode pushed it all in my face yesterday and I just wanted to give the readers here a chance to be exposed to the same information.
Highlights (or Darklights); 1) One of the Democrats knocking on doors to sway undecided Dems to vote for McCain was a black male. It was put to him by a member of a family at one of these homes why he wasn't supporting Obama, since he was a black male Democrat. His answer was that he did want to see a black man in the White House, but he hoped it would be at another time in his life because he thought McCain was the better choice at the moment. I was confounded. The man sounded young. He must think there's plenty of time in his life for this opportunity to rise again if Obama loses. I hope to God he's right, but personally--I want it NOW, while the opportunity IS RIGHT FREAKING HERE RIGHT FREAKING NOW. Oh my God! It's like walking up to a pile of a million dollars, and when given the chance to take it you say, "Well, no actually, I like the earnings I make right now. But hopefully some day, I'll find another pile of a million dollars, and I'd be glad to take it at that time--provided all the conditions are right..." WTF?!?
2) The best recruiter in the segment with the state college seemed really obsessed. Almost as a personality flaw. But her technique was the best. She went everywhere on campus to get kids registered. She went to tailgate parties, she was at the games, she was at frat parties where she could hardly hear herself. She never took no for an answer. but one guy, a drunkish frat boy, had a little surprise for her. He showed her (as described by the audio reporter tailing her) his cellphone which had a little animation of Obama's face turning into a monkey. The boy then slurs, "This is what we think of him around here!" The recruiter went directly to another group and continued her dogged pursuit of registering kids. But the radio reporter jumped into a lull in her work to ask her what she thought of that boy's cellphone display. The girl paused, and then her voice grew shaky. She said that she couldn't let that get to her or else it would destroy the energy she had to do her job. The more she spoke, the more upset she sounded though. In a few more seconds, she was heard bawling. The radio reporter said it was because of all the pressure and exhaustion. But I wanted to bawl my damn self. The boy was a student at a college. And to him, one of America's youth, this is an acceptable joke or display of opinion? In 2008 A.D.?!? IN TODAY'S GENERATION?!?!?!?!WTF?!!!!!!
3) The AFL-CIO segment brought due attention to many people who answered by phone about who they were going to vote for, being Union members and Democrats. The show focused on those who answered the canvassers by saying, "Definitely not Obama!" Some said it was because he was a Muslim. Eventually they admitted it was because he was black. Some said they weren't going to vote for "no f**kin' nigger." To me, the most haunting testimony came from a Union phone recruiter who discovered that a co-worker and friend wasn't going to vote for Obama because of his color, and the recruiter never knew that about his friend. The recruiter, a white guy, tells how he tried to reason with his friend, also a white guy, but his friend kept revealing how threatened and hostile he felt being around so many blacks and having to see his kids playing with so many blacks at the school, and how if Obama got in "Jesse Jackson would become one of his advisers and next thing you knew Al Sharpton would be in the White House too." Yeah, right next to Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, you forkin' DOUCHENOZZLE. This phone canvasser sounded devastated to discover that his friend, even though they both worked with blacks and ate lunch with blacks, had this mindset.
So now, here is that Richard Trumka video the show talks about; The most important thing I've heard come out of this segment was the presence of advertisements which said the following "There are many reasons to vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States. But there is one wrong reason not to."
These were the fears I've harbored--oh--I think---all of my life. Yeah. All my life. That the unseen nooks and crannies of the world harbored dark and vitriolic thoughts like these and it would affect me based on nothing I could control or even want to. Things that would see me stomped to death in an alley somwhere.
Another thing said out of the AFL-CIO segment was that this race situation was a thing that was "a two-hundred year-old wound with a sixty year-old scab" and I whooped in my car when he said that. Because it's so true. And I've known this all my life.
But I will still choose to focus on the thing that brings me hope.
DESPITE the truth of this report from Pennsylvania's nooks and crannies, Obama is leading in the polls. He is getting equal airtime. He is a contender. A serious candidate which all my white friends who do not want him to win are all saying they think he will win.
Despite the hatred and ignorance that so many Americans still harbor (and oh my dear sweet Jesus GOD will it EVER stop?!?!) Barack Obama is a black man who this country has "allowed" and accepted to rise to the prominence he has today. A man who in two short weeks may very well become the nation's President. A black American man who all the planet Earth has noticed.
I don't think I can ever make my white friends know how important this is to me personally, but I can only do my best to represent it in this post and hope the right eyes read it. Meanwhile, I urge you to listen to this weekend's "This American Life". Put the information in your heads for future discussion. Let it sharpen your own thoughts about race in America. Let the next sixty years pass with even MORE advancement and even MORE dissolution of hate and fear and ignorance. For the love of all that is literally Holy.
So lately, yeah. I have friends who remain loyal to themselves and their own ideals and beliefs, even when it takes them away from what's important to me. I've learned to accept this. Who doesn't have the right to their own opinion? Their experience is uniquely theirs, so they will formulate a worldview based on what they see out of their own eyes and feel through their own heart.
Okay.
That said, I do wish that they knew how good I felt about being an American these days. I've never ever felt as American as I do right now. I've never felt as accepted in this country, by this country, as I do now. And it's because you guys want Obama.
You want him because you believe in his politics, or because you've always voted Democrat, or you despise Bush, or McCain gives you the creeps, or whatever. But what's important to me is that the color of Barack Obama's skin did not make him illegitimate for the Presidency in your eyes.
So obviously I'm speaking to you, my white people. Everywhere I go and see an Obama pin on a white person's backpack, or an Obama bumper sticker on a white driver's car I feel like I've been hugged and welcomed into my own country. I feel like I finally know how some white people feel when they look at me. I feel like some walls have finally come down.
And it's enough for me. I want Obama to be the President, and if it doesn't happen, I'll understand why. Yes, there are people in my country who will say, have said, "There's no way I'm voting for a nigger!" but that particular voice is the minority. On the whole, those who don't vote for Obama is doing it because they have always voted Republican, or they are concerned about their money and believe that Obama wants to destroy their financial security, or whatever. But most people who will not vote for Obama will choose this based on their own political beliefs, not because of the color of Obama's skin.
And for that, I am thankful. I finally feel like I have my place in society. I finally feel like the ignorant things said behind closed doors no longer matter to my future and the future of my children and their children, and their children's children.
So let the white lady clutch her purse in the elevator when I walk on. Let the white driver lock their cardoor at the stoplight when I'm on the sidewalk. Let the white sales clerk follow me around the store until I'm done shopping. Let 'em. That's their individual ignorance, and it means nothing to me. My country supports the idea of a Black President.
Okay, so this could be a butchering of the facts--a hatchet job of a series of out of context sound bytes cobbled together to make this man look bad. But if even one of this segments is true, you have to know it.
Perhaps Obama has had his slip ups and contradictory speeches, and so I'll expect a similar hatchet job to show up on him if it exists. But if one does exist, do you think it will look as bad as McCain's? Give me someone vital, rather than McCain. Give me someone who can ably address the world in global courts. Give me someone to inspire confidence in a nation again, from without and within. And for a fringe benefit, give me a guy who'll improve the chances for kids of my skin color to grow up in a better country, with better chances to be regarded as a US citizen than I did and my father before me, and his father before him.
The other night in Times Square, I saw a group of five twenty-somethings, looking like they had fallen out of the dorm at Columbia University, or out of an L.L. Bean catalog, campaigning for O. Loudly. Waving their "O" signs and taking names on their clipboard. Two boys and three girls. Looking like the cast of Dawson's Creek or The OC. And I thought to myself, are they really for him? And by extension, me?
Tonight I started down my Blogroll list to peep into your lives, and I opened up My Other Hero's page and I saw the video he posted. I'd never heard a mumbling peep from him about his stance on politics or the world, or race or even religion. He's a science fiction author and an essayist, and a humorist (and a poet and singer and songwriter). Through none of those mediums had he ever expressed his views on much else than that he was a nice creative guy with a wife he loves and hopes and dreams for a successful career.
To me, posting this video is like reaching out an giving me a hug. Not that he posted it for me. He probably wasn't thinking about me at all. But I've said it before--it's important to me. It would mean so much. It would go so far. Sometimes I feel ornery and I just want rednecks to hiss and spit (treat ME like a second class citizen, will you?). But most times, when I dare to hope--allow myself the vulnerability to dream--I know how good it would be for your kids and my kids --all of OUR kids-- to see a black man as the Executive Officer. As the Leader Of The Free World. As More Than A Basketball/Football Player. As More Than A Rapper/Entertainer.
As Someone.
I've said it for a while now, just to throw the idea out there and see if it made any sense to anyone.
It makes sense to My Other Hero. And to all the other white people out there who are casting their votes.
And for the first time in a very long time, I feel like my country can accept me for me.
Did this guy actually hit the ground? To fall 47 stories and survive?!? His brother died instantly. Just contemplating such a thing makes white noise go off in my brain.
Secondly, does Iowa mean that Hilary is no longer running for the White House? Just what the hell is a "caucus" anyway. I couldn't even keep focus enough to click on the explanatory link. It all seems like such a hullabaloo shell game. Just people in Iowa get to determine who runs for president? It can't be that unfair, can it? Or is it some kind of exploratory poll that signifies nothing but Iowan opinion? And if it's just opinion, then Hilary is still running, right? Or what?
What I wanted to see is Hilary and Barack being contenders. I dreaded the bloodbath to ensue as Democrats chose between a black man and a white woman, but I wanted the country to have evolved that far enough along where the choice would need to be made.
And of course I want Barack because I want black kids and white kids to grow up with a black leader. I want black representation to be in every walk of life, including the most powerful one in the country, and not just relegated to entertainment. The days of the minstrel show have long passed. I want black faces to have gravity in this country. I don't want us to be dismissed as a joke-teller or a ball-dribbler, or as 70% of prison population--whatever cozy, safe little nook we occupy in the minds of the "majority". I want black people to matter in the realms that are important to the majority. Finance. Politics. I don't think we'll truly be seen as equal until we truly are.
Edit: Okay, so Iowa is just opinion. Thanks, media industry, for once again distorting the facts and incorrectly influencing people (or at least dumb ol' me).
So. How surprised are we? What would it have been like if McCain HAD become President, and Palin HAD become the Vice President? The conservative church goers heartbreak would have rivaled the sound of the shot heard around the world.
